ESL General English Grammar Questions

Re: The rainy season

Abil — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 02:10:27 GMT

Thanks Optilang and Huevos.

I think grammar rules are mostly violated in poetry. After all, languages have come before grammar, and like any other living phenomenon, they are also dynamic,
and change all the time.

Re: The rainy season

Huevos — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 16:48:29 GMT

Abil
My question is: is it a hard and fast rule?

What do you think about the inversions

Much rain there has not been.

Not much rain there has been.

Re: The rainy season

Huevos — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 16:28:00 GMT

Abil
My question is: is it a hard and fast rule?

You're not going to find it in literature.

there has not been much

there has been not much

Re: The rainy season

optilang — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 16:24:48 GMT

Like GG I don't know about a hard and fast rule.

It is possible to say 'there has been not much ..' but I would put not before been.

I would say:

There hasn't been much interest - not - there has been not much interest.

Re: The rainy season

Abil — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 16:08:15 GMT

"The "not" needs to go right before "been." says Grammar Geek.

My question is: is it a hard and fast rule? I ask it because a google book search for
"there has been not much" has produced 306 hits.

Thanks

Re: The rainy season

Huevos — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 13:20:24 GMT

Abil
The rainy season is almost drawing to a close

I would say "The rainy season has almost drawn to close, yet there has been little rain".

Grammar Geek
no native would say "there has been not much rain." The "not" needs to go right before "been."

I think that about the closest that a native would say while still maintaining that order would be something like "there has been but little rain".

Re: The rainy season

Grammar Geek — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 12:34:09 GMT

I don't know if it's style or a hard grammatical fact, but no native would say "there has been not much rain." The "not" needs to go right before "been."

Re: The rainy season

Abil — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 12:24:20 GMT

Thanks Optilang. But may I ask is "has been not much" completely woring? Or, you have made the changes for the sake of style?

Re: The rainy season

optilang — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 12:17:45 GMT

The rainy season is almost drawing to a close, yet there has not been ~~not~~ (that) much rain. This means that hundreds of thousands of acres of lands will (have to) be left uncultivated, food production will decrease and food prices will go up.

The rainy season

Abil — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 12:08:36 GMT

The rainy season is almost drawing to a close, yet there has been not much rain. This means that hundreds of thousands of acres of lands will have to be left uncultivated, food production will decrease and food prices will go up.

Are there any mistakes and room for improvement?